Jewelry Stand

Post date: Oct 10, 2017 6:59:26 PM

Cactus Jewelry Stand - Sadie Jacobson 

My initial idea for my project was to create a tree jewelry stand to be made out of wood to hold necklaces, earrings, rings, bracelets, and more. Based on my initial ideas I took it a step further and decided to make it a cactus instead of a tree. I also decided to make it out of acrylic so that I can light up the cactus from the wooden base. I chose to do this because it is more unique and I think would look really cool! I love cacti and I think that this was the perfect way to incorporate my own interests. My goal for my jewelry stand was to create something that I could find use from. I learned so many new things through this long process. One of the many things I learned is how to use the laser cutter all on my own and navigate through the Fab Lab easily. I used a combination of Tinkercad, Makerspace, Inkscape, and Coreldraw to create my many prototypes. I can confidently say that now that I am now capable of using all of these design spaces with little to no assistance. I furthered my existing knowledge of jewelry making when I worked with the wire-like material for my hooks. I worked very hard on this project, but I couldn't have done this whole thing on my own. Along with the help of Mr. D and my classmates I received feedback on my initial ideas to help create my amazing final product. I faced many challenges during this project including the size of the cactus and base. I wish that I could have started designing in Coreldraw instead of transferring my drawings on paper into my computer. I think this process is what caused many of my problems and obstacles. I also wish that I took more time at the end to touch up my paint and add one more coat of paint to make it look nicer and neater. Although it did not end up lighting up perfectly in the end I am most proud of my light lining in the base and final product overall. I never thought that it would turn out looking this nice! I can't wait to use it at home, and for the upcoming students to use it in the Fab Lab as well. I am also proud of myself for conquering this project because although it might seem somewhat easy it was quite challenging and forced me to step outside of my comfort zone. 

My initial idea was to laser cut an acrylic cactus jewelry stand. There will be holes for earnings, pegs for necklaces, and bracelets can go on the cactus arms. The base will be made of wood and there will be green LED lights to light up the cactus inside the base. I am also 3D printing a mini cactus for rings. It will have a base similar to the jewelry stand but without lights. Both of the bases will be cut out using a laser cutter. We did an activity in class where we shared our ideas and our classmates had the opportunity to tell us things they liked, ideas they had, things they were confused on, and things to change. I was given some great advice which I took into great consideration going into this project. One piece of advice was to make the size of my base box a little larger so that I could fit my LED lights and battery inside. 

This was my inspiration for my light up cactus jewelry stand. When I was doing research for potential project ideas the tree jewelry stand caught my eye. I wanted to make it more custom to me, so I made it a cactus because I love cacti! After I decided that I would make it out of acrylic, Mr. D gave me the idea to put LED lights in the base and make it light up. I did some more research, and I found that this is what I want my jewelry stand to look like when it lights up. 

I made a sketch on card stock of my cactus with the exact size I wanted it to be. I had to play around with the sizing so that it would be tall enough to hold an average size necklace and wide enough to have holes for the earings. I also had to practice making the slits down the middle, and figure out how long and wide I needed to make them so that the two cactus sides could slide together without collapsing. I learned that the size of the slit needs to be the exact size of whatever material I am using to make the cactus. 

After scaling my jewelry stand to the right size I cut out the cardstock pieces and slid them together using the slots I cut out in the middle. It seemed to stand well without any tape or glue although it wasn't perfect and it ended up falling over a lot. My first idea for the pegs on the cactus was to use something like a nail that would easily go through wood/acrylic and would be useful to hold necklaces. I didn't end up liking the nail because one side was pointy and sharp and the other side was dull and had an end. However, I did find that the nails were the perfect size I was looking for. If I were to use the nails to hang the necklaces I would have to shave off the pointy side of the nail off, and figure out what to do with the nub on the other side. I also practiced making holes for my earrings, and I learned that I can hold 3-4 pairs of earrings on each cactus arm. I think that the next step for me is making it more stable, and finding a different material object to use as a hook for my necklaces. 

The cardstock base I made fits the cactus jewelry stand perfectly and can stably hold it up. I like the size of the base because it is not too tall, wide, or long; however, I am not sure if the base is large enough to fit the LED lights and other things I will need to light it up. 

Since I measured the cardstock cactus stand perfectly to scale I was able to trace each part of the cactus and scan it onto my computer. This worked out well for me because I was able to save the design I liked and easily transfer the correct sizing into Inkscape and Coreldraw. When I first transferred the drawing into Coreldraw I had to turn my drawings into lines connected by nodes so that I could edit it. It turned out that not all of the lines were connected because of something in the scanning process, so I had to manually connect each line by dragging the nodes together. In Coreldraw, I also had to make red lines for the slits down the middle and red dots for the earrings on the sides. I still have a lot of modifying to do in Coreldraw before I print out my first prototype, but by scanning it in it made the process a lot simpler. 

After I transferred my design into Coreldraw, I had to figure out how large I wanted the holes for the earrings to be. So, I decided to try laser cutting 4 different size holes in cardboard to see which one worked best with an average size earing. I learned that the hole all the way to the right was the best size, and so I made 6 holes on each cactus arm so that the jewelry stand will be able to hold 12 pairs of earrings. 

I laser cut my designs out of cardboard to see if everything fit and looked nice before I cut it out of acrylic. I used MakerCase to design the box I wanted, and in Coreldraw, I had to add the slots on top so that the cactus could slide in. However, the cactus did not fit in the base because I think when I transferred my drawing to my computer the sizing changed. I now have to go back into Coreldraw and fix the sizing of the cactus so that it fits into the base. Also, I learned that one side of the cactus is too long compared to the other side of the cactus, so I have to make either one side shorter or one side longer. I think this mistake also happened when I scanned my drawing into Coreldraw. Although scanning was an easy and quick process I think next time I should just try making it in Coreldraw to ensure that it doesn't get messed up in the transfer process. 

I started thinking about what kind of lights I want to use to light up my jewelry stand. I had to think about how I would turn them on, how big the lights would be so it could fit in my base, and how bright the lights had to be. I decided to use these lights, and I will make a hole on the side of my base to stick the end of the white switch through so that I have easy access to the on/off button. Next, I need to figure out where I should line the lights so that it is bright enough to shine through the base and light up the cactus. 

Next, I laser cut my cactus out of wood after I made many modifications. I added slots to the bottom so that it would fit the base size, added holes, and made the cactuses the same height. It looks great, but one side of the cactus is still higher than the other so I have to fix that again. This might have been the most challenging part of the process because I have tried making them the same size multiple times but one always ends up being bigger than the other. Sometimes I regret scanning it in and I wish that I tried just making it in CorelDraw.  

I finally found a wire-like material that will work as my hooks instead of using a nail. It is in the photo to the right of the acrylic square. It is easily bendable but also is firm enough to hold somewhat heavy necklaces. I found a small square of acrylic that I could use to find the correct size hole for the wire to go through. It took multiple tries to find a size that will make the wire fit snug. I ended up finding that it had to be very small! Next, I have to decide what shape I want the wire to be and push it through the holes. 

I experimented with the wire to see what design I liked best. I tried bending the wire to look like S's for my name Sadie, and also to function as smaller hooks. I tried making them look like cacti arms too. I tried swirling the ends around, and I decided that that looked the best and functioned the best because it could hold multiple necklaces on one side. It was challenging getting familiar with the wire and being able to bend the wire easily. However, it was easy for me to get the hang of it because I made jewelry over the summer and worked with tools and materials just like this. 

I was very stressed to finally print my cactus on acrylic because I did not want to mess it up. I wasn't sure if one side would end up being longer than the other because the last time I printed they still weren't perfect. I was also unsure if it would fit in the base, but I knew I could make changes to the base if it did not fit. I took a chance and printed it standing nervously to the side and it ended up being perfect!! 

I laser cut my base out of wood, and I had to put a hole in the side so that I could put my light switch through and have it functional. I made sure to make the slits on the top longer so that the cactus would be able to easily slide down. However, I wanted the slits to be small enough so that it could hold it up strong. When I tried putting the cactus in it barely fit, and I realized I needed to make the slits just a little longer. I also learned that I should move the hole for the lights to the way end of the side because it got in the way of the cactus. Since the other sides of the box were perfectly fine I only had to reprint the top and one side of the box. 

After I re-printed the top and side the cactus easily fit inside the base and the new placement of the light switch hole was not bothering the cactus. When the cactus was in the base it was a little bit wobbly which was frustrating because of how many times I had to reprint different aspects of the base, but Mr. D gave me a great idea on how to fix that problem. He told me that I should print out a piece of wood to fit inside the bottom of my box that will hold it in place. 

I took Mr. D's advice and I cut out a piece of wood identical to the top without the sides to hold it together to place at the bottom of my box. This worked really well and kept it more stable than before. Next, I glued all of the sides together because unfortunately, it would not stay together on its own. I glued the new base to the bottom as well, but I did not glue the top on because I still have to place the lights and tape them down. 

Before I lined the base with my lights I decided to paint it white to look nicer and cleaner. I painted it with one coat of paint and waited for it to dry and then I painted another coat. After I painted two coats of paint I thought I was done, but it turned out that the marks from fire from the laser cutter stained the wood and you could still see it through the paint coats. If I could have I wish I would have gone back and painted a third coat of paint. Also, when I painted the base the paint got in the little corners of and made it difficult for me to close the base and it never really shut fully after that. 

Once my paint was done drying I started lining the bottom of my base with the lights. I first taped the light switch down with electrical tape, and after that, I randomly started wrapping it around in circles making sure each light was in a different spot to distribute the light evenly. Every now and then I would place a piece of electrical tape down to hold the lights down. Although it looks sloppy I am proud of what I did. I think that it was efficient and worked really well. 

Since everything was finished I just had one last finishing touch: the wire hooks to hang necklaces. Although I had experimented with the style I wanted I had to learn how to bend the wire after I pushed it through the hole. This was hard because the cactus kept getting in the way when I tried bending the wire. It was also a very tight squeeze trying to fit the wire through the hole. For some reason pushing the wire through some holes were easier than others. It took longer than I hoped, but I loved the end product. I think the swirls are unique and significant to me. 

I tried lighting up my final project in the dark, but it didn't work very well because I soon realized that my cactus was too tall for the lights in the base to light up the whole thing. It did a good job lighting up the bottom but unfortunately, the light did not reach all the way to the top. I think that if I had thought this through ahead of time I could have come up with a solution to this problem. 

This is my final cactus jewelry stand with jewelry on it and without jewelry on it. It all held together very nicely with jewelry on it, and I can't wait to take it home and put all of my jewelry on it! I am very proud of how my final product looks. 

Since I had extra time in the last couple of classes I started making the ring stand in Tinkercad. I did this much, but it was very challenging to make the cactus arms flow well together. Mr. D informed me that it will be very difficult to 3D print it because it is circular and the arms float. I decided not to print it anymore, but to keep trying to figure out ways to make the cactus look good. I feel very accomplished with what I have done in Tinkercad because I am fairly new to it. 

After I finished Mr. D requested that I print another jewelry stand that can stay in the classroom for new students to hang their jewelry on. I was very honored that he asked me to do this, and I was happy to print out a new cactus. It was fairly easy because I had already done it, but when I was printing it accidentally overlapped with something that was already printed and cut a hole off the top. Thankfully it is still fully functional and this silly mistake did not affect anything but the appearance. 

For the hooks on this cactus, I wanted to try something new so I tried making the cactus hooks I briefly talked about earlier. I also like these hooks because they are simple and stick with the theme I was going for. They are still just as sturdy and fit very nicely. I can't wait for incoming students to be able to use something that I made myself! It makes me really happy to hear that others will be able to use my creations.